A Modest Proposal - No Action Left In This

Bundesliga: Day One - Worth The Wait

VfL Bochum - SV Werder Bremen 2:2
Hannover 96 - Hamburger SV 0:1
FC Bayern München - FC Hansa Rostock 3:0
Bayer Leverkusen - FC Energie Cottbus 0:0
VfL Wolfsburg - Arminia Bielefeld 1:3
Eintracht Frankfurt - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:0
VfB Stuttgart - FC Schalke 04 2:2
1.FC Nürnberg - Karlsruher SC 0:2
Borussia Dortmund - MSV Duisburg 1:3
Finally, the waiting is over. Today the new season of the German Bundesliga started. Lots of money has been spent on new players, in fact the most ever in the history of the Bundesliga, so it will be interesting to see if the quality of the games will improve. A lot of articles have been published, lots of talking about who is the favourite and who will get relegated, but today it's all back to normal. It's on the pitch. We're on our way!
Somehow I realized how much I really missed the radio coverage. Listening to the broadcasts every Saturday afternoon has become a common pasttime for me over the past few years. I don't really see the need for a Pay TV contract, because I love to listen to the radio. Wonderful.

No surprises on the first day. Bayern won in style against Rostock, Schalke and Stuttgart both scored twice in the inaugural match of the season, but were both not convincing. One result might cause some concern, Wolfsburg lost to Bielefeld. Wolfsburg having named Felix Magath, the former Bayern coach, their new coach and manager, went into the season with high hopes of getting into international competitions. They aimed for the UEFA cup or the Champions League but seem to have a long way ahead of them.
Berlin will have to struggle through this season. They lost a lot of players over the summer and it seems they can't compensate their loss. On the other hand a lot of people do not think that Frankfurt will escape relegation, but they came to a good start today.
Hamburg will look to forget the past season when they were almost relegated. A win against north German rivals Hannover will be one step in the right direction.
Bremen were a bit disappointing only achieving a draw against Bochum who lost their top scorer Theophanis Gekas to Leverkusen. Leverkusen only drew against against Cottbus, a team a lot of people think will go down to the 2nd division after this season.
On Sunday Dortmund and Nürnberg both lost to teams who were promoted from the 2nd division. In both cases this has to be seen as a setback since both clubs had high aspirations before the season. Dortmund lost at home to MSV Duisburg while Nürnberg were defeated by Karlsruher SC, also at home.

So it's only the first round, but already everybody is sucked into the fascination of the new season!

Because the Summer Koushien started: Ookiku Furikabutte

Today the final round of summer tournament of the Japanese high schools started at Koushien stadium in Osaka. I really don't have the insight on which school might be a favourite to win the whole thing this year since there are so many changes on the teams each year, mainly because the students graduate and new players will come to the teams with each school year. But because the tournament started today I found a new anme series which is airing on TBS in Japan at the moment. It's called "Ookiku Furikabutte" and just as other school animes it's about a high school baseball team that is aiming to go to Koushien at least once in their three years at high school. It is set in Saitama and tells the Story of Mihashi Ren, the pitcher for Nishiura High School. He always thought that his spot on the team of his Middle School was because his grandfather was the manager of the baseball club. When he joins his new club he doesn't want to be a burden for his teammates and doesn't try to mix with them. But the catcher Abe Takaya believes in him and his arsenal of pitches which are extremly slow. Together they enter a match against Mihashi's former high school.

As I said, this series is airing right now but it shows a lot of potential. True, the first match is already dragging over three episodes, but the character development takesa very slow and nice way. There's funny points every now and then. Especially the character of the team manager, a woman called Maria Momoe, might be in for a lot of funny parts.

It might not be a hit like "H2" which also turned out to be a very good drama, but it's a very good sports and high school anime. The animation is good, sometimes it looks like they used real life examples e.g. for the windup the pitcher does on the mound. It looks very authentic. The voice actors are also very good. I'm looking forward to the future episodes

DFB-Pokal: The German Cup, First Round.

Here are the results of the first round:

1899 Hoffenheim - FC Augsburg 4:2 a.e.t.
SV Sandhausen - Kickers Offenbach 0:4
VfL Osnabrück - Borussia M'gladbach 0:1
SC Verl - TSV 1860 München 0:3
FC St. Pauli - Bayer Leverkusen 1:0
1. FC Magdeburg - Borussia Dortmund 1:4
SpVgg Unterhaching - Hertha BSC 0:3
Eintr. Braunschweig - Werder Bremen 0:1
Rot-Weiss Ahlen - Hannover 96 1:3
Rot-Weiss Essen - Energie Cottbus 6:5 a.p.s.
SV Wilhelmshaven - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 0:4
Rot-Weiß Hasborn - Hansa Rostock 0:8
SV Wehen Wiesbaden - VfB Stuttgart 1:2
1. FC Gera 03 - FC Carl Zeiss Jena 0:3
Wuppertaler SV Bor. - Erzgebirge Aue 4:3 a.p.s.
FC 08 Villingen - SC Freiburg 1:3
Victoria Hamburg - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:6
Holstein Kiel - Hamburger SV 0:5
W. Bremen II - 1. FC Köln 4:2 a.e.t.
1. FC Union Berlin - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:4
SV Babelsberg 03 - MSV Duisburg 0:4
Bayer Leverkusen II - SC Paderborn 07 0:1
1. FC Normannia Gmünd - Alemannia Aachen 0:3
TSG Neustrelitz - Karlsruher SC 0:2 a.e.t.
TSV Havelse - TuS Koblenz 0:3
Dynamo Dresden - VfL Bochum 0:1
SV Seligenporten - Arminia Bielefeld 0:2
Würzburger FV - VfL Wolfsburg 0:4
Eintracht Trier - FC Schalke 04 0:9
Wormatia Worms - 1. FSV Mainz 05 1:6
SV Darmstadt 98 - Greuther Fürth 1:3
Wacker Burghausen - Bayern München 3:4 a.p.s.

So the main surprises were the defeat of Cologne against the 2nd team of Werder Bremen and Leverkusen's loss at St. Pauli. For 1.FC Cologne that is the usual case in each year of cup play. Although at one point they were leading the competition for playing the most finals (I think they won the cup three times, last time in 1983 against city rivals SC Fortuna Cologne) over the past few years they haven't achieved anything. As for Leverkusen, they were sort of the dark horse for this season in the Bundesliga, assembleing a strong squat of young players and were higly rated to be one of the top five clubs. But they didn't deliver in Hamburg when they lost to 2nd division FC St. Pauli.
But the biggest surprise of all the matches was the last one on the list. Bayern Munich just barely defeating Wacker Burghausen, a third division team, who were relegated from the 2nd division after last season. Bayern spent 70 mio Euro on new players, Wacker spent nothing. Everybody expects Bayern to become the next champions and noone would be surprised if they won the cup as well. But yesterday they struggled. Burghausen even went up 1:0 and they had the chance to close it with their last penalty.

Anyway, few outs, the big name still in the box, let's wait for the second round...

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (6): Tommy heavenly6/Tommy february6

Crazy stuff. This is the lead singer of the J-pop band The Brilliant Green with her solo stuff. Kawase Tomoko started off with her solo alter ego Tommy february6, the name coming from her nickname and her birthday. It's brilliant 80s pop music which came out in tons and tons from production studios in Europe. To me it sounds a lot like the stuff produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or Dieter Bohlen (anyone remember C.C. Catch?). I hated that sound back then but it seems with a change of language it really gets into my ear. She released two albums under that name (a self titled debut and another one named "Tommy Airline"), both with lots of hit potential. The mixture of Japanese and English phrases are well balanced and she even does a coverversion of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You".

And just when you thought it can't get anymore weird she pulls off another stunt and changes her image completely. Now calling herself Tommy heavenly6 she now plays rock music. Apparently she changed her whole image on a television show after performing as Tommy february6. The heavenly6 thing was put up for two albums (again a self-titled one and the follow up named "Heavy Starry Heavenly"). Sometimes this is a bit too poppy but there are some good rocking songs on those records as well.

What I find very fascinating about this is the rapid change of her image. I believe I have never experienced an American or European poptar change their appearance so fast and unexpected. True, there have been image changes every now and then but that was mostly because the perfomer was lacking success at that time and was trying to give his or her career a boost by doing so. This could be seen when all those boygroup guys went solo after their "band" split up. But this is unheard of over here.
The Briliant Green are back together again it seems as they contributed a song for the now showing drama series "Tantei Gakuen Q", an adaption of a manga novel. So we might not hear new stuff from both Tommys in the near future.

8-ball at Yankee Stadium, Red Sox welcome a new member

That was fun to watch. I wasn't able to connect to the Red Sox stream today so instead I tuned in to the Yankees game against the White Sox. The match started rather boring with nothing happening in the 1st inning but then things changed. First Yankees starter Roger Clemens was roughed up by the White Sox offense in what turned out to be an 8 run top 2nd inning and then in the bottom of the 2nd White Sox starter John Garland was also pounded and in the end after that inning the score was 8-8.
Continuing the game in the 8th inning Yankees catcher Jorge Posada had to pull out of the game because, as the commentators (who I really like, those guys know what they are talking about. And the play-by-play announcer doesn't try to be the wise guy. Plus they root for their team which is fine, but they also acknowledge the efforts by the opposing team. A bad example would be the commentators for the White Sox. Boy, those guys just suck big time.) pointed out he might be dehydrating because he played the night game the day before and it was very hot and the game was going on forever. I still keep learning everyday...
In the end the White Sox won the whole thing 13-9 and Alex Rodriguez still has to wait for his 500th homerun.

Elsewhere the Red Sox eventually got past the Orioles in a 7-4 win at Fenway. First appearance by newly acquired reliever/closer Eric Gagne who came in by a trade with the Rangers. Hideki Okajima once again pitched a scoreless 8th in relief of starter Tim Wakefield.
Tied at 1st place in NL Central are the Brewers and the Cubs. I have to admit that I have a weak side for losing teams so I'm following closely what the Cubs are doing this season. Seems like they always have games that might give you a cardiac arrest. A lot of late inning runs or even walk-off runs or homeruns.
But today they seem to have lost (5-7 to Philadelphia in the 7th, game still going on while I write this). But that didn't mean a thing since Milwaukee also lost (4-12 to the New York Mets). Which I find great 'cause a good friend of mine told me he is a Mets fan. They lead their division NL East. I watched some of their matches and I like their way of playing. They are up against the Cubs from tomorrow on, that should be some fine games.

I think I am finally getting the hang of this...

Pre-Season Test match: SCB Viktoria Cologne vs Borussia Dortmund

There was a test match before the start of the new season yesterday. Borussia Dortmund payed a visit to 5th division team SCB Viktoria Cologne. Lots of those matches take place in the pre-season, as I might call it. Most of them are just show offs for smaller clubs, the big shots of the 1st division Bundesliga don't always play with their best team, but it is a chance to get to see your favourite every once in a while.

The stadium where this match took place is located in a park like area in Cologne which makes it very nice to go there. The weather was fine and so my father and me were looking forward to a nice game. Being from Dortmund my father always was a fan of Borussia and I tagged along when I was a child. Since then I don't really care about Cologne's big club 1.FC Cologne. I've never watched a match of the BVB before, so I was very curious about what to expect.

We arrived there early and got tickets for the main part of the stadium. We sat down at one end of the pitch, located perfectly to see all the goals of Dortmund in the first half. They started with Weidenfeller in the goal, Kringe, Brzenska, Amedick and Buckley in defense. Midfield was Aleksandrov, Federico and Petric and Valdez and Smolarek played up front. Borussia got ahead quickly 2-0 but then found themselves fooled by Viktoria striker Jonas Wendt, who scored after playing around Brzenska and then lifting the ball over the surprised Weidenfeller. From the on the BVB took over and scored goal after goal. Only Valdez didn't seem to be in the mood since he left out a lot of clear chances. If he plays on like that he won't be in the first team for a long time.

After the break Borussia made some changes and so a few young players got the chance to prove themselves with the big ones. One of them was Marco Rummenigge, son of former Borussia midfielder Michael Rummenigge who was part of the team that won the DFB-Pokal in 1989. He played really well and looked a lot like his father back in the days. Another youngster is Christopher Nöthe, who scored once and had his moments during his few minutes of play.

The absolute highlight came during halftime though. A young german singer called Diana Sorbello entertained the crowd with some of her songs. Or should I say "tried to entertain"? To be honest this was awkward. Full playback songs with some football content (e.g. a cover version of the 1974 World Cup song "Fußball ist unser Leben" (Football is our life) and some other hilarious tunes). The poor girl was walking up and down in front of the fans, trying to get at least something like a response, but somehow noone seemed interested. When I searched for her homepage (which can be found HERE) I was surprised to read that she has a university degree and is even trying to get an even higher degree at the moment. I will never understand why they play such music at football matches...